


In Trying Times, True Friends Walk In

by Cookies_and_Chaos



Category: Malory Towers - Enid Blyton
Genre: 1950s, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Murder Mystery, Period Typical Attitudes, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Sexism, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-21
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-22 07:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30035271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Chaos/pseuds/Cookies_and_Chaos
Summary: After the girls of Malory Towers left school, many of them went their separate ways, and how close they had once been became a distant memory. But when one of their number lands herself in hot water, a reunion is inevitable.





	1. Introduction

You are very welcome to skip this introduction / mini-history lesson and go to the first chapter. It will not effect the story.

Influenced by shows such as The Bletchley Circle, Frankie Drake Mysteries, and Murdoch Mysteries, I played around with my favourite group of characters and threw them into a world beyond school and university where they could get themselves into a wide range of trouble. Such as keeping themselves busy by solving crime in their spare time. As you do.

Much like in parts of the shows that prompted this idea, there is a mix of light-heartedness and character-driven story underpinned by some of the serious topics and contexts of the time. While many of the societal events are influenced by real-life occurrences, there is a certain amount of creative licensing. I enjoy research and do my best to be close to accurate but this is written for fun so I may miss some details and nudge some others.

Based 7 years after Malory Towers, it's 1959 and the original characters are in their mid-twenties. As well as the original 6 canon books, I have dipped into characters and events from the 6 post-canon Pamela Cox books and the New Class at Malory Towers book.

Below is the societal context, particularly in Britain, that Darrell Rivers and her former classmates find themselves trying to navigate in this story as they make sense of who they are as adults while getting caught up in investigating a crime. Knowing the history absolutely isn't needed at all for the story but I felt it was important to highlight the events of the time for those interested.

~

In the UK in 1959, the effects of World War II were still felt and despite progress towards women's rights earlier in the century, there was a swing back towards marriage and family to "restore tradition" post-war. The very fact that many of the girls from Malory Towers even remained in education beyond the age of 15 was unusual for the time and was only afforded to them because of financially comfortable and privileged backgrounds. Often women who weren't to be married shortly after leaving school were needed by their families to bring in money so went into work as secretaries, machinists, and other such roles from the age of fifteen upwards. In the 50s only 1.2% of women went to university, it was unusual even amongst middle and upper-class families, and it was very much considered a stop-gap until they got married and started a family. Women were still paid much less than men and married women were often solely reliant on their husbands for financial stability as there was still an expectation that they would quit their work upon marriage. Abortion would not be legalised for another 8 years, married women still received allowances from their husbands, and while there were changes upon the horizon with the 60s bringing more progressive views and changes, the women's liberation movement wouldn't start until the late 60s.

Homosexuality, and indeed anything other than heterosexuality, was still widely considered and treated as a mental illness. Legal sanctions, prejudice, and brutality towards people from the LGBT+ community increased after World War II and continued to peak through the fifties and sixties. Gay Rights Activists were forming protest groups and making progress but while the Wolfenden report had been issued arguing for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, changes to the Sexual Offenses Act wouldn't take place until 1967. World-changing events like Stonewall in the USA, and the forming of Gay Liberation Front groups in multiple countries including the UK wouldn't happen until the very end of the 60s.

The 50s had seen the British government encourage people from the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia to move to the UK — in part to fulfill working roles that had been left empty with the post-war labour shortage — only for those who did make the move to face racism, discrimination, and violence upon their arrival. The Notting Hill Riots took place in August 1958, where a mob of over 300 white people attacked Caribbean residents of Notting Hill with petrol bombs, projectiles, lead pipes, and knives. The American civil rights movement was underway and the UK saw its civil rights movement grow at this time too. This would eventually lead to boycotts against companies who used the "colour bar", a racist system where companies openly refused to hire Black or Asian people or allow them to enter their establishments, and landlords refused to rent rooms to Black or Asian residents. The movement would also lead to the establishment of the Race Relations Act in 1965. 

There were varyingly sincere talks about supporting disabled people outside of institutionalisation, equality in housing and employment, and inclusive education but the Disability Act wouldn't come into being for nearly four decades and those talks rarely moved into being anything other than talks. Disabled people experienced horrific ableism, exclusion, and humiliation at the hands of society and institutions. In response, disabled people formed groups to fight back against discrimination and mistreatment, and to campaign for equal rights. Mental health conditions were seen as something shameful or as a personal fault to be hidden away and asylums were still open and regularly used, deinstitutionalisation wouldn't start in any real way until over two decades later. Electroconvulsive therapy was still frequently used for treating mental illness throughout the 50s and for many years after, often without consent or anaesthetic.

Police corruption, cover-ups, and brutality were an open secret, something that was particularly well known to oppressed minority groups who were often on the receiving ends of these acts, but more formal reports wouldn't start to appear until the 60s.

~

Finding out that you're not the anti-establishment maverick that you thought you were. Discovering that the world doesn't accept you solely because of who you are or who you love. Facing the realities of loneliness and isolation. Losing friendships that you once thought were so strong they could never break…

Life isn't easy once the backdrop of school and the safety net it provided are gone but even then, people can come back together for the right cause.


	2. So Much for a Quiet Night In (Alicia)

_"The sincere friends of this world are as ship lights_ _in the stormiest of nights"_

Life, Alicia Johns thought, truly was mercurial. One moment she was settling down for a quiet night in by herself and the next? Well, the next there was a knock at the door and, suffice to say, a relaxing evening alone pondering her life's choices to date was not in the cards for Alicia.

Alicia turned off the music on the record player, set the glass of water in her hand down on the coffee table for her guest, and topped up her own partly drunk glass of wine. 

"You're sure you won't have any?" She offered one last time, tilting the wine bottle for emphasis.

"I should think I'll need to take painkillers soon and they wouldn't go well with alcohol."

Right, of course. That made sense. Alicia sat down in the armchair and grimaced as she looked at the black eye her guest was sporting. "How much am I going to regret letting you in?"

Darrell Rivers grinned back at her with the same warmth and sparkle she had always had, which was most contradictory given the black eye, split eyebrow, and busted lip. "I suppose _that_ depends on the sorts of things that tend to lead you to regret."

Alicia took a long drink of wine before speaking again. "Alright. You said you needed my help. Did you rob a bank or something?"

Darrell rolled her eyes. "No. I did nothing of the sort and I rather resent that being the first thought you have of me."

Alicia ignored her commentary and asked another question just to be awkward. "Did you kill someone?"

"No! Absolutely not." For all her indignance, there was guilt to Darrell's expression and Alicia's heart sank as she quickly connected the dots.

"Have you been _accused_ of killing someone?" Alicia asked.

"Technically I'm just a person of interest," Darrell said.

Alicia grabbed her glass and knocked back the rest of her drink. At this rate, she was going to need another bottle of wine. She set the glass down and wondered whether she should just tell Darrell that she couldn't do this, not with all she stood to lose. But her tongue ran away from her, as it often did, and she found herself saying, "Alright, start from the beginning I suppose."

"Well, I'm not entirely sure where the beginning is, you see," Darrell said. Alicia leveled a glare at her and wasn't swayed by the innocent smile she got in return. Darrell was so adept with weaving words into stories — it being her career for heaven's sake — that it certainly wasn't uncertainty over how to express herself that was holding Darrell's tongue. Alicia could sense stalling tactics a mile off.

"Fine. Who are you supposed to have killed and why would you be a suspect at all?" Alicia asked.

"I was seen in a somewhat heated dispute with Cyril Wainwright, the victim, a few days before he died. Rather unfortunate timing on my behalf." Darrell cleared her throat and glanced down at her hands for a second. "We've also had run-ins in the past."

"Of course you have," — Alicia groaned and rubbed her palm over her face — "did he give you the…" Alicia gestured towards Darrell's face.

"Oh golly, no. This is the work of our fine constabulary," Darrell replied, a twitch to her expression that betrayed a flash of temper. Alicia could hardly say such anger was unwarranted given the injuries to her face.

"The police did that?" Alicia asked dubiously, tipping more wine into the glass and immediately taking it up to drink again.

"And then some, believe you me that the worst is not visible."

"Have you had your injuries seen to?" Alicia asked, suspecting she knew the answer. This was, after all, the same person who had often shirked visiting the San at school and university even when she had been injured on the lacrosse field. Of course, back at school, it had been easy enough to get Sally Hope to convince Darrell to go to get checked over since Darrell had an awfully difficult time refusing her best friend's requests. That wasn't much use to Alicia now though, since there was a jolly good reason for why Darrell was at Alicia's place late on a Friday night asking for help and not at Sally's.

"No. I wasn't sure about going to the hospital, a part of me is concerned about being picked up by the police again," Darrell admitted. 

"Please tell me you didn't escape custody?" Alicia asked, dreading the possibility even though she knew it was unlikely. For a start, she wasn't entirely sure how Darrell might go about escaping. Still, best to be thorough...

"No, they just made it very clear that they would be coming back for me. I don't think they would have let me out at all if I hadn't managed to get ahold of my boss. He threatened to splash it across the front pages if they didn't release me since they had no actual evidence to charge me," Darrell said. "What with the negative press they've been getting recently, they weren't keen for more of the same."

Alicia tilted her glass and sighed when she saw it was empty. The wine bottle wasn't far from being in the same state. It was fine, she reasoned, it hadn't been a full bottle when she poured herself a glass five minutes before Darrell's arrival. Besides, this was a most unusual occurrence and so it was completely understandable that she had drunk the best part of a bottle of wine in such a short time. In lieu of taking another drink, Alicia watched closely as Darrell lifted her glass of water, there was a stiffness and caution to her movements. No doubt courtesy of those other injuries Darrell had made reference to.

"So why are you here?" Alicia asked. "Are you hoping I'll hide you until, what, the police forget about you?"

"Not at all. Mostly because I suspect they won't forget. I'm not exactly well regarded by the police." Darrell shifted in the chair and winced, unable to find a comfortable position. She eventually settled on leaning forward, cradling the glass of water between her hands.

"You don't say. Inflammatory comments on radio shows and in news articles and books don't tend to curry favour," Alicia replied dryly.

"I was rather hoping you would help me find out who really did kill Wainwright since I doubt the police will look much further now they have their sights set on me," Darrell said.

Alicia opened her mouth, closed it, repeated the motion, and then clamped her lips together for fear of appearing like a goldfish. She took a few slow breaths and finally spoke. "You want me to help you solve a murder and clear your name?"

"That's the long and the short of it, yes," Darrell said.

Alicia glanced at her empty glass one last time and sighed. "Lord help me…"


End file.
